Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh conducts proceedings in the House during the Monsoon session of Parliament. Photo: PTI
India ranks 131 out of 148 on global gender gap index, Govt tells Rajya Sabha
Government highlighted steps taken to bridge the gap, including maternity benefits, political representation, and educational schemes
India has been ranked at 131 out of 148 countries on the global gender gap index in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 released by the World Economic Forum, the Government informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday (July 30).
Sharing the information in a written reply, Minister of State (MoS), Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, further stated that India was ranked at 129 out of 146 countries on GGGI in 2024.
"The Global Gender Gap Report 2025 is released by the World Economic Forum, a non-governmental organisation. It ranked India at 131 out of 148 countries on the global gender gap index (GGGI). It ranked India at 129 out of 146 countries on GGGI in 2024,” stated the MoS.
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Govt keen on bridging gender gap
She further stated that the Centre has given utmost priority to bridge the gender gap in India, by reducing disparity between men and women and by increasing the socio-economic status of women and their participation in various fields.
As for the steps taken by the Centre to address the issue of gender gap, the Union Minister stated that the initiatives range across economic, political and educational empowerment of women.
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Economic empowerment
As for the economic empowerment of women, the MoS stated that the labour laws have specific provisions relating to women workers, besides all other rights under labour laws, which include enhanced paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for two surviving children under the Maternity Benefit Act, as amended in 2017.
The initiatives also include the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Centrally Sponsored Maternity Benefits Scheme under which cash incentive of Rs 5,000/- is provided directly to the Bank/ Post Office account of the beneficiary in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode for the first child.
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Political empowerment
As for the issue of political empowerment of women, the MoS stated that the country currently has a woman as the Head of the State, President Droupadi Murmu.
“In order to bring women in the mainstream of political leadership at the grassroot level, Government has reserved 33% of the seats in Panchayati Raj Institutions for women. Capacity Building of Panchayat Stakeholders including Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Ministry of Panchayati Raj is conducted with a view to empowering women to participate effectively in the governance processes,” stated the Minister.
“Today, out of the 31 lakh elected representatives in PRIs, 14.5 lakhs, or 46% are women, much higher than the constitutional mandate, and the highest absolute number of women in local governments globally,” she added.
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Education sector
As for the education sector, the MoS listed government initiatives such as the Samagra Shiksha, Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), a centrally sponsored scheme under Sambal vertical of Mission Shakti of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which is 100% funded by the Central Government across the country.